National Grocery Reform - Obama's Next Cruel Plan?

Yesterday, commenting on the president's budget to Congress, Dennis Miller told Bill O'Reilly that he is just glad that nothing is in the budget for Al-Qaeda.   Bill O'Reilly followed by saying: "yeah, drapes for the cave".  I share these sentiments on the budget. At the same time, I wonder - are not even stranger things happening these days? 

Below is an excerpt from a report on National Grocery Reform, a report you might expect to see about the government of Hugo Chavez.   Alas, this is about the USA.

"One of the great scandals of our age is the fact that America spends more on food than any other nation. Many political leaders are now calling for urgent reform to bring spending on food under control. Even worse, while the result of this uncontrolled spending includes the fact that many Americans are overweight, some Americans do not have enough to eat."

The report goes on to discuss what liberal candidates are saying about the "Right to Food", and the "need to equalize availability of food".  Unsurprisingly, liberal proposals would target the "administrative overhead required to make a profit” in the food industry.  Also not a surprise, liberals see "corporate greed" as "the heart of the problem".   

Does this surprise you? Are you alarmed? Don’t be. This National Grocery Reform report is a parody, one of my all time favorites. It is not reality – yet - though it does seem more believable today than when published on Capitalism Magazine, just over a year ago.

Enjoy the full version of Richard E. Ralson's National Grocery Reform “report”.  

Technorati Tags: Cruel,Obama,National Grocery Reform,Dennis Miller,Bill O'Reilly,Right to Food

To GOP Chair Michael Steele - Rush is not just an Entertainer!

I had a lot of respect for Michael Steele until I heard him call Rush an entertainer.  Would he call Laura Ingraham an entertainer?  How about Sean Hannity or Glen Beck?  SNL is entertainment.  Stephen Colbert is an entertainer.    Does Steele consider Rush's opinions and strategy to be nothing more than truthiness?  If so, I beg to differ.

Michael Steele's comment was an undeserved insult to Rush and, I would add, to his listeners. In making the comment, Steele denigrated the value of Rush Limbaugh's opinions and contribution to Conservative thought. However, the greater downside of Steele's comment is that it reveals a worrisome lack of political courage on his part. Steele agrees with the principles that Mr. Limbaugh so boldly and fearlessly advocates. So, why did he make the comment he made?

Individual rights and capitalism are under attack.  Meanwhile, the GOP has been groping for several years for a marketable identity instead of standing up for, and voting in line with the principles of freedom it ostensibly stands for. It is time to retire GOP leaders who place value in things like being able to reach across the aisle instead of defending our liberties.  The GOP needs leaders who can persuasively convey and courageously defend our constitution and our liberty.    Watching who says what about Rush will give us a good clue who to pay attention to.

Technorati Tags: Rush Limbaugh,politics,CPAC,Republican,Conservative,Michael Steele

Republicans had better want Obama to Fail

UPDATE:   My apologies to Virginia Representative Eric Cantor.  In the previous version of this post, I included a quote from the Washington Times that falsely attributed Cantor with a comment he did not make.

I want this president to fail on many of his objectives.  Any elected republican that can not say this and cannot shout these things loudly and proudly needs to retire now.  Among the things that I want this president to fail on:

• I want President Obama to fail at any attempt to strengthen the stranglehold of unions on business in this country.
• I want President Obama to fail in any action that would infringe upon my individual rights.  For example, I want President Obama to fail at any action:
  
  • that would infringe upon freedom of speech whether it be public or private, on radio or TV, on the Internet,  in print, or elsewhere (be there such);
  • that would infringe upon my 2nd amendment rights as they stand today; or
  • that would infringe upon any other of my individual rights
• I want President Obama to fail in any initiative that increases the number of persons dependent on welfare; for example, I want him to fail in his effort to reverse the successful Welfare to Work provisions made possible by Newt Gingrich, his Congress, and the Contract with America.
• I want President Obama to fail at his efforts to increase State dependency on the federal government and further dilute their rights under the 10th Amendment.
• I want President Obama to fail at nationalizing banks, forcing banks to take loans they don't request, forcing banks to write off loans they have the legal right to collect on, or forcing them to make more risky loans.
• I want President Obama to fail at any attempt to give citizenship to illegal aliens.
• I want President Obama to fail at all attempts to expand the role of the federal government in health care.
• I want President Obama to fail at any attempt to implement Cap and Trade.
• I want President Obama to fail at enlarging government in any way.
• I want President Obama to fail at bailing out the auto industry.
• I want President Obama to fail at slandering capitalism or dismantling what few remnants of capitalism are still alive in this economy.

The above is  just my spur of the moment short list.   Somebody needs to start a web site to address specifically all the many discrete plans, dreams, attempts, etc., on which We the People want President Obama to fail.

Technorati Tags: CPAC,Obama,fail,Eric Cantor,Whip,Virginia,Republican,Limbaugh,Newt Gingrich,Contract with America,We the People,cruel,Hall of Shame

Nuclear Materials Missing - Energy Department, too Big to Fail?

Dept of Energy cannot account for nuclear materials.   Wait.  Aren't they too big to fail? 

In a must-read article on Atlas Shrugs, Pamela Geller makes the convincing case that - Something of Historic Proportion is Happening.   Now we learn that nuclear material, lots of it, is unaccounted for - missing.   Could this be yet another clue to whatever the something  is that clearly is happening?

Is there a connection between missing nuclear material and the something that someone may be planning for us?

The question begs a serious response, especially in light of so many causes for alarm.

• Witness the blatant disregard for our constitution that the majority of our so-called representatives in Washington, by their actions, display with impunity.   Or, did I miss the right to force bailouts on banks in my last read of the constitution? 
• Consider assaults on our individual rights.   Or,  does anybody really believe that the euphemistically named Fairness Doctrine is actually about  fairness? 
• Study what's being discussed in the name of Stimulus.    See if you can correlate line items or earmarks in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to those few enumerated powers we grant to our Federal Government in our Constitution.
• Ponder the power plays.   Why would a bill to provide payback and power to unions bear the oxymoronic title - "Employee Free Choice Act" ?  Does a ruse by any name smell the same?  Why again is the White House taking control of the Census?   
• Suspect the secrecy.   I learned of the missing nuclear materials in an article on Government Executive; I also found note of it in Homeland Security Today.   Perhaps some details should not be made public. Still, where was the MSM on this story?   

Even if there were no cause for alarm, it would be naive to ignore the possible connection between unaccounted for nuclear materials and those who might use them to do harm.  You don't have to be paranoid or believe in conspiracy theories to  make this connection.   But who can we  trust to get to ground truth and protect us, without misusing this as an opportunity to scare us out of liberty?   What say the party of change?  Will you act now to secure our nuclear material, locate lost materials, and protect us against the threat of its misuse?   Or, will you wait for the next audit report?

Certainly, protecting us from the threat of nuclear materials lost in our own country is a more legitimate use of federal funds than are so many projects in the so-called stimulus bill.   But, will this administration allocate resources to our protection from this threat?   Or will doling out funds on wetlands for mice,  favors for unions,  Acorns, or Planned Parenthood  organizations take priority?  These are the priorities of looters; they are misplaced priorities that may stand in the way of our very survival.   How cruel is that?

_______________________________________________________________________

Excerpts from Katherine M. Peters report in Government Executive  (emphasis mine): 

A number of institutions with licenses to hold nuclear material reported ... that the amount of material they held was less than agency records indicated.

.... rather than investigating ... Energy officials wrote off significant quantities of nuclear material from the department's inventory records.    ... the quantities written off were significant ... potentially pose serious health hazards."

... Energy could not accurately account for the quantities and locations of nuclear material at 15 out of 40, or 37 percent, of facilities reviewed. The materials written off included 20,580 grams of enriched uranium, 45 grams of plutonium, 5,001 kilograms of normal uranium and 189,139 kilograms of depleted uranium.

Noteworthy excerpts from comments about this article.

69839  ... why does Congress NEVER question the operating model of the national laboratories? ... They are not government employees! They are never held accountable because of the billions of dollars they bring to their districts. Of the roughly 120,000 employees of DOE, about 100,000 are contractors. ... Allen Posted February 24, 2009 10:35 AM

69798  Good thing they use metrics, because the depleted uranium doesn't sound so bad, like 208 tons would. How do you misplace 208 tons of something? There's a bigger question here. Why are they concerned about depleted uranium if it is harmless? That's what the Pentagon, VA, and manufacturer of hardened munitions have been telling our troops and veterans who have Gulf War Syndrome, cancer, and leukemia. Depleted uranium is definitely a unique element; it becomes non lethal in the presence of disability claims. All sarcasm aside, look up Iraqi birth defects for a look at what those missing 208 tons can do.  Anthony Weishar Posted February 24, 2009 7:14 AM

Technorati Tags: cruel president,Obama,nuclear materials,consipiracy,Inspector General Audit,Uranium,Plutonium,Government Executive,Atlas Shrugged,change,health hazard,too big to fail

Stimulus Bill: Economists DO NOT agree on Government Action

It pains me to think that President Obama might have knowingly lied to us when he said:

"There is no disagreement that we need action by our government, a recovery plan that will help to jumpstart the economy." — PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA, JANUARY 9 , 2009

But, this is an untruth!

I hear this democratic talking point about "no disagreement"  regurgitated every day, by elected democrats and their representatives in the main stream media.    But, I know they are lying on this point; anyone who reads can confirm this.  

One place to start checking your facts is at the The Cato Institute's web site.  Read the list of economists who signed their petition and,  if you're an economist, sign the petition to express your agreement with the following statement: 

Notwithstanding reports that all economists are now Keynesians and that we all support a big increase in the burden of government, we do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance. More government spending by Hoover and Roosevelt did not pull the United States economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. More government spending did not solve Japan's "lost decade" in the 1990s. As such, it is a triumph of hope over experience to believe that more government spending will help the U.S. today. To improve the economy, policy makers should focus on reforms that remove impediments to work, saving, investment and production. Lower tax rates and a reduction in the burden of government are the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost growth.

Certainly,  Free-Market Economists disagree with the President.   Read anything on Mises.Org for an understanding of their point of view.   For a good recent example, see "Obama's Wealth Destruction" by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., excerpt below: 

Obama can put a stop to his madness. He needs to know — someone must tell him frankly and openly — that his current path is going to lead not to recovery, but to an extension of suffering, and untold amounts of it.

The biggest threat facing the American economy right now is rarely even discussed. It is the massive buildup of paper bank reserves in the last quarter of 2008. This was Bush's doing. He ordered the Fed to print like mad. Fortunately for us, the banks are still holding on to these reserves. When they start lending again, the result could be hyperinflation of Confederate-dollar proportions.

Hence the priority of the Obama administration should be to first do no evil, and second to find some means for withdrawing those reserves from the banking system before they wash through the economic structure and destroy the dollar. There is still time. He must act. Yes, that will lead to bank failures. That's good! It will lead to business failures. That's good and essential too.

Even the Congressional Budget Office has pointed out that this almost trillion-dollar price bill will do worse to our overall economy than no government action whatsoever.   How can our President claim otherwise?

Technorati Tags: main stream media,MSM,Obama,Stimulus Plan,Economists

Fiscal Reality Central

DCCC takes Moral Low-Ground in Petition against Free Speech and Rush Limbaugh

What's next, a Fatwah?

Every US citizen should be outraged at the overt attacks on free speech underway in our current Congress .   Ongoing efforts to impose a Fairness Doctrine and the Local Content Rule pose imminent threats and must be stopped.   Now,  the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee  (DCCC) published a petition against a talk show host, Rush Limbaugh.  Clearly, the DCCC is overtly working to curtail  speech and silence dissent in this country. 

I strongly encourage you to respond to this affront.  Input yourcomments on the DCCC petitionAND contact your elected representatives to solicit their support in defending FREE SPEECH. 

Is the DCCC's OVERT attack on freedom of speech what President Obama means when he calls for greater transparency in government?   Is this reaching across the isle in bipartisanship?    Is this really how contributors to the DCCC want to see their dollars spent?   One might expect this sort of  tactic from the political-turret's-syndrome sufferers who write in loony- moonbat blogs.   From the DCCC,  this petition is a contemptuous Argument from Intimidation and it shows a blatant lack of respect for me, my freedom of speech, and the freedom of speech of all citizens of this country.

Last I checked, there were over 1400 comments on the DCCC site in response to their petition and I am happy to report that nearly all comments express disagreement with the DCCC, and/or support for Rush Limbaugh, and outrage at the DCCC's affront to free speech.    Add your comment today!

Technorati Tags: DCCC,Rush Limbaugh,Free Speech,Petition

RE: Operation Digital Dipstick (ODD)

Why (really) do the Democrats want to delay transition to all digital TV?   Transition to digital TV is supposed to be a cash cow for the taxpayer.   Our government expects to sell the frequencies in the analog spectrum once they are no longer needed for Analog TV.   So, why would we delay those sales?  Don't we need the money?

• Why can't we rely on “the Couch Potato Law of Motion” ** to motivate stragglers who aren’t ready.   If your screen went blank, wouldn't you finally take care of yourself (by buying a converter or a new TV)?
• Does anyone else find it odd that ODD was delayed out of concern that too many Americans won’t be ready for the change?   The reason sounds suspect; I just don’t know what the real reason might be.

In line with OBAMA’s recent Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government :

• I think we should get to see an (easy to read) online Profit and Loss (P&L) statement for ODD, so we can monitor the program’s profitability over time. 
• In fact,  shouldn’t we see P&L’s for any program that stands to have receipts offset outlays (like when the government starts selling whatever toxic assets it acquires under the TARP program)? 
  

**  "an object at rest will remain at rest until it no longer gets television reception".   Quote from:  American Thinker: Government Incompetence Presented in High-Def

American Thinker: Government Incompetence Presented in High-Def

Ok.  I lost track of time again.  Since I last wrote, I started at least 20 blogs.  New Year's Resolution:  KISS (keep it simple stupid).   A blog a day keeps the brain-cobwebs away?   Anyway, not to self on this article - BUDGET BALANCING - GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY PETITION: the government should post a scorecard on "Operation Digital Dipstick".   I want to watch the public P&L statement on what was spent on this and what comes in on sales of Analog Frequencies.    I wonder if this is already in the works.   Hmmm, ya think?

American Thinker: Government Incompetence Presented in High-Def

Voting for Prosperity in the Senate

A number of Internet sites exist to help you influence your representatives and evaluate how well they are representing you.  I'd like to build a single Knowledge Center that mines data from multiple relevant sites to generate comparative and analytical displays of the data and makes it available in a single site,  a  citizen's portal to the known .  

There are many organizations that publish rankings of our representatives.  To the right, for example is an extract of  grades published by Americans for Prosperity; it is a list of Senators who received a grade of "F" for their voting records (so far) in the 110th Congress (January 3, 2007 to January 3, 2009).   Below, are the Senators listed on the 2007 National Taxpayer's Union list of "Tax-payer Friends". 

At these two sites, grades are determined  by the representatives' voting records on "Key Votes", votes relevant to issues they advocate.  

Many sites focus in on their own uniquely determined set of  key votes for an area of  interest.   You can also get information on how each member of Congress voted, if they voted, on specific issues or bills related to your own specific interests.   One great site to do your own research is Project Vote Smart  (not to be confused with Project Vote); this is a site produced by the work of  thousands of conservatives and liberals who are "sickened by the manipulative tactics of modern candidates".... life myself.

It is hard to keep up with all that's going on and, in my view, a vigilant citizenry has never been more important.  If I had a magic wand,  I'd have that portal built, with an intuitively easy meta-view to all the known sources of data, an easy way to get just the info we need just when we need it,  easy to understand summaries and comparative analyses of the data that's out there,  and drill-down and download capability for those (like myself) who like to dance with the data themselves.  In the meanwhile, I find that  Project Vote Smart provides the closest match to what I'd like to see in my dream CyberCitizen Portal.  In fact, I like their site so much, I think I'll share more on what they do in my next Blog.  

Technorati Tags: CyberCitizen,Vote Smart,Congress

Urgent - Volunteers Needed to Observe Recount - Support Senator NORM COLEMAN

I received the following EMAIL request and have offered to help. Can you?

Senator Coleman needs your help immediately!

I am sure you have heard the news already that Senator Norm Coleman has a very tight lead in his race against Al Franken. Because the race was so close, by state law there must be a recount. Team Coleman is in URGENT need of volunteers to serve at precincts throughout Minnesota to observe the recount process. It's imperative they locate 150-200 people who can take personal time from their respective jobs and lives and be deployed on behalf of Senator Coleman.

If you live in Minnesota, they need your help! If you live outside of Minnesota and are willing to come to Minnesota to help they also need your help!! The Coleman campaign must work through the recount process successfully and be sure Senator Coleman is properly represented. Deployed representatives can expect proper reimbursement and handling of travel expenses. More details are forthcoming later today.

Team Coleman will also need funding for the recount effort. In addition to all other contributions, individuals will be able to donate $2,300 per person or $5,000 PAC. More to come on this effort.

If you or those you know can take the time to volunteer and be deployed around Minnesota to represent Senator Coleman in this pivotal recount, please contact Tom McGill at 651-434-9735 or by email tmcgill@colemanforsenate.com.

Technorati Tags: Minnesota,Norm Coleman,Election 2008